LFI Course Materials/Week 6: Facial recognition

Week 6: Facial recognition and more on artificial intelligence

• Real time lecture: June 28th 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern

Overview

Facial recognition technology seems to be everywhere these days, increasingly used by apps, devices, and law enforcement alike. But what do we know about this technology? How does it work, and where is it being used? What privacy considerations are being taken into account in its development? What about the fact that these technologies have been demonstrated to be discriminatory? Varoon Mathur of the AI Now Institute will join us to talk about new developments in facial recognition technology, how it relates more broadly to the increased use of artificial intelligence, and will help us understand policy and legal efforts to prevent these technologies from being used to violate our rights.

Learning objectives

• How facial recognition technology is being used
• What the use of this technology means for our rights
• What policy interventions are taking place

Readings

AI Now Report 2018 Note: This is quite long, so don't worry if you can't manage the whole thing!

NYT report on study about bias in facial recognition

Anti-facial recognition legislation in Washington being spearheaded by an ACLU coalition

More on the ACLU's anti-facial recognition coalition

San Francisco Bans Facial Recognition Technology

Guest lecturer

Varoon Mathur, AI Now Institute

Discussion

• How can we bring information about this technology into our communities?
• How can librarians get involved in efforts to control the use of this technology?

Tasks

• Lecture, readings, discussion forum, and small group work
• Prepare for small group updates on the forum next week